All -
Thanks for all your condolences. I know Fred was buried a few days after his passing. I don't know the status of his school but I'm sure his legacy will carry on.
"The audience of earth-bound people cannot appreciate the joy, sights and feelings of a sailplane pilot; high above the traffic jams and millions of TV sets polluting minds and wasting useful lives.
No earth bound person can understand the many motions and boundless energy of the atmosphere. Few airplane pilots know the secrets that sailplane pilots use to travel hundreds of miles with no engine, using no fuel and landing safely without an engine to make a second attempt.
The majestic lenticular clouds signal mesmerizing energy and an unreal smoothness…an eerie quietness that suddenly envelops the sailplane and its pilot. The lifting motion of the atmosphere is able to carry the sailplane to altitudes high above the cruising altitude of a 747. The world record of 49,000 ft was set near Mojave California.
While pilots of powered airplanes suffer in bouncy turbulence through valleys, sailplane pilots may be traveling the same direction, moving along in utter bliss. It's knowing and using the many variations of atmospheric motion.
Sailplane pilots are drawn to the high mountains, soaring above Mount Whitney and the Rockies while many airplane pilots avoid them like a disease. Sailplane pilots often use oxygen while some airplanes cannot even reach the same altitude with their propellers churning in furious rotations.
Unless you soar with the hawks and eagles, you cannot appreciate the fun that the birds seek daily. I have had birds fly inside my wingspan perfectly confident that I too was a bird and look at me eye-to-eye. What a joy!
My life as a sailplane pilot and instructor is so full of unexpected pleasures that in my 56 years of being a pilot, the pleasures only increase and now I am living the best years of my life still teaching others and flying just for fun."
Fred Robinson March 28, 2003
Thread Closed, good-bye Fred!